Reflecting a statewide pattern, Red Bank Charter School students bested their district-school counterparts in standardized math and language tests in 2010, according to a report released Tuesday by the New Jersey Department of Education.
The report, titled “Living Up to Expectations,” is a comment-free compendium of tables comparing charter school test results in math and language arts against test results of students in the host districts.
Overall results are reported for grades three through eight, and reflect the outcomes of the New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge tests taken by students last year to comply with the federal No Child Left Behind law.
In Red Bank, results show the charter school outperforming the district at every grade in both subject areas by wide margins.
The charter school also turned in results that topped state-average results in both subjects at every grade level measured, the report shows.
Neither charter school Principal Meredith Pennotti nor district Superintendent Laura Morana could be reached for immediate comment on the report.
A press release issued with the report by the state agency says the data shows that “the majority of charters in urban areas last year outperformed other public schools in their host districts on required standardized testing.”
The release of the report coincided with the announcement that the education department had approved the creation of 23 new charter schools statewide, according to the Star-Ledger. That’s the largest number ever approved in a single year, and will increase the existing base of 73 charters by nearly a third, the newspaper reports.
On Monday, anticipating today’s report, the Sledger reported that “well over half” of charter schools outperformed the local districts on the tests.
The agency also used the results to bolster Governor Chris Christie’s education reform proposals, which call for more charter schools and more school choice for children in failing schools.
Here’s the full report: living-up-to-expectations
open more
Mark Your right Give people who cant afford private schools another option Kudos to Christie
Check out this link: http://shankerblog.org/?p=1646#more-1646. Here’s a piece of it: “It seems that the department compared the overall proficiency rates of each of the state’s 70 or so charter schools with the rates of the district in which they are located, as well as with the overall state average (for the record, the tables and press release incorrectly call the rates “scores,” though it is an important distinction). They then tallied up the results to see how many did “better” and how many did “worse.” The overall conclusion: 79 percent of charters outperformed their “host” districts on language arts exams, and 69 percent did so in math. There are so many monumental limitations of this analysis – not the least of which being that it makes absolutely no effort, even crudely, to control for student characteristics – that they’re really not worth enumerating. Suffice it to say that the results, by even the most generous policy research standards, demonstrate very little about charter schools’ relative performance (versus comparable regular public schools in their areas). New Jersey charters may have done better this year, or they may have done worse, but these results, as presented, cannot be used to judge it either way. The bold, sweeping conclusions in the press release are, at best, misleading and, at worst, absurd.”
Do the scores for the district include populations like ESL and special ed? Anyone know?
I don’t believe so, Brian. ESL and Special Education are among what is meant by “student characteristics” in the blog I quoted.
thanks for the info dayna. i wish more people would see it that way.
also, donald, yes christie is for charter schools but as long as they work in conjunction with that districts public school. similar curriculum, same before and after school programs where the kids do stuff together, events, and so on. which would be great but does not happen here in red bank. i’m curious to see if it happens anywhere else.
There are many reasons why the comparisons released by the are deeply problematic, and well, meaningless. For a much deeper look at the issue, consider: http://schoolfinance101.wordpress.com/2011/01/19/unspinning-data-on-new-jersey-charter-schools/
The blog is written by Bruce Baker, Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Education at Rutgers.
Oops –I hit send prematurely. It should read …released by the NJ Dept of Education are…
Dayna:
Thanks for the link.
It seems a little premature to conclude that criticism by an org with a vested interest makes the whole study meaningless.
Especially when the author is an unnamed blogger.
For readers who don’t know the late Albert Shanker was the iconic leader of the NY Teacher’s Union for decades.
He did a fine job representing his union members just as the Foundation named after him which hosts the blog is continuing to represent their interests.
What the blogger and you seem to expect is the public school should be graded on a curve taking socieconomic fators into account.
The use of the factors conveniently puts the blame on the students and their families, not on the teachers.
Test scores probably should not be the only things a parent should consider when deciding whether to send their children to a Charter school.
But I doubt all parents weighing RB Charter vs. RS Primary or Middle will find a straight up unvarnished comparison of the test scores of these 2 RB schools to be meaningless.
Kevin, if you read Rutgers Professor Bruce Baker’s comprehensive analysis of the NJ DOE report (see link above), then you will see that the NJ DOE’s report is far from a “straight up unvarnished comparison” and therein lies the problem. Neither I nor the Shanker Blog nor Prof. Baker’s schoolfinancing101 blog place blame on students, families, or teachers. We are simply pointing out that a study that does not compare apples to apples is not useful. I do blame the governor for spinning data to suit his anti-public school agenda. With all due respect, the one thing you and I seem to agree upon is that test scores are not the only thing that parents should consider when selecting a school for a child.
I think a straight up unvarnished comparison be general test takers vs. general test takers. It seems to me all it would have taken the state to include that data would be to create another column or two on an excel spreadsheet. And it would make this report a lot more helpful.
You’ve got it, Brian. My hunch is that if that “extra column on a speadsheet” was added to the report, it may not support the Governor’s decision this week to approve a record 23 new charter schools, bringing the total in the state to 97. Our tax dollars are being used to create misleading reports, and then we are funding new schools without accurate data to support their creation. I am not against charter schools per se, I just don’t like being manipulated by Christie.
Dayna:
I’ve been talking about how useful the data might be for RB parents looking at RBCS vs. the Borough schools. With only 19 students in each RBCS grade I think the head to head comparisons are useful.
It appears you and Brian are focusing on how the results have been used to push for the creation of more Charters.
I’m for Charters but they are not a panacea. Instead of a sharp expansion I believe the ones who have struggled to become successful should be given more resources.
Charters take a lot of commitment from all members of the school community so they are not for everybody.
I understand that comparing “apples to apples” seems to be necessary to make valid statewide decisions, but it still bothers me.
Because it also serves to continue the wide held belief that many of the students who are currently “oranges” can never be “apples”.
It hasn’t been widely replicated yet, but there have been some successes (Promise Academy Charter Schools) showing that socioeconomic status is not necessarily destiny.
So even if students eligible for free lunches currently bring scores down the whole point of educational reform is that it doesn’t have to stay that way.
And taking them out of mix doesn’t do anything to send a message they can do as well.
In today’s Star-Ledger, Bob Braun writes a column, “Calculating the Difference in Charter Schools”. Definitely worth a read.
http://blog.nj.com/njv_bob_braun/2011/01/nj_statistics_compare_charter.html
Kevin,
I think you’ve read too much into my questioning here.
I’m not focusing on how the results are being used to push for the creation of more charters whatsoever. As a parent, I’m just looking for the most, and most accurate data I can get my hands on.
Hey Brian, the bottom line: Our public schools (including Charter) reflect a student population somewhere between 60-90% non-native English speaking (depending on which school or class selected, the concentration varies). With that major test taking handicap in mind, we public school parents must understand (and eventually accept that) standardized (English) test results will reflect this reality. To put it another way, with say 75% of the class as ESL, these test results are astoundingly high – the schools manage to educate those not speaking English quickly enough, so that by third grade they are able to test just off the high water mark of other area “top schools”.
I would love to have the actual data, say from exit interviews at the HS level, on what students though about their primary schooling and how it prepared them for the trials of HS and beyond. Unfortunately as far as I know, such data does not (yet) exist. Be sure to call me if you run into any like this though.